San Antonio Light-Rail... Possibility?...Give SA Light Rail...Light Rail Trolley

[Cuero]

Something that might make sense is to look at the cost to acquire the right-of-way, or a permanent easement on it, for potential construction in the future rather than wait until it's all built on.

But I tend to agree with this commentary:

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

https://www.cato.org/publications/co...-antonio-needs

With transportation technology progressing so rapidly it doesn't make sense to spend multiple billions of dollars, which we don't have, on a fixed infrastructure that will likely be obsolete by the time it's built.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

What does it matter whether we'd live to see the completion? I'd much rather live to see the idea squashed once and for all for the reasons I've previously stated. I'd much rather see express bus service than trains - when it's all said and done, they'd be a LOT more adaptable to a changing ridership demographic, and easier to add/reduce fleet size. And the most recent analysis I could find revealed the following per-mile cost (report dated 2017):

City Bus Cost Light Rail Cost
Dallas $122.38 $451.33

This calculations always ignore a lot of costs
Such as right of way for highways, cost of building overpasses, cost of road maintenance, cost to maintain the buses, cost to pay more bus drivers than train drivers

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by Dopo

This calculations always ignore a lot of costs
Such as right of way for highways, cost of building overpasses, cost of road maintenance, cost to maintain the buses, cost to pay more bus drivers than train drivers

Which are certainly less than that of trains. Look at how many under-utilized VIA buses go down the road. As it is currently, they can make a low-use run less frequently, add it to other routes, etc. Once you lay a railway, that's pretty much it. The bus can share HOV lanes with cars, be rerouted overnight - all the adaptability advantages that a rail system lacks.

[alwayssanantonio]

The traffic here is not bad at all, comparatively speaking to other very large cities in the U.S. Commute times are short indeed, locally. This is great.
I think the rail system is the route "interests" need to get the San Antonio Taxpayer to part with some serious money. It is the San Antonio Trojan Horse. We don't need one. Yet.

Infrastructure investment which is procrastinated will in the future be many times more expensive to implement. In other words, the light rail won't be at this price for long and congestion will only worsen if San Antonio's keeps at its' current pace. Soon we be as over ran as the Chinese.
San Antonio population growth is the fastest in the country. Austin -San Antonio supposedly will become one mass urban sprawl . Realistically, The City must expand, like it or not.
Do it.